Love to Everyone
by Hilary McKay
Intermediate, Middle School    McElderry    330 pp.
9/18    978-1-5344-2710-5    $17.99
e-book ed.  978-1-5344-2712-9    $10.99

In Binny in Secret (rev. 7/15), McKay introduced us to Clarry, her brother Peter, and their beloved cousin Rupert in a subplot set during World War I in London. Here, McKay gives us the full story of these three: stubborn, grumpy Peter; kind, charismatic Rupert; and especially Clarry, adoring of the boys and, as a girl, destined to stay home and care for her selfish, neglectful father. As the three grow up, Peter is sent to boarding school; Rupert enlists in the army; and Clarry defies her father’s apathy and earns a place in an academically rigorous girls’ high school. Then Rupert is declared missing, “presumed dead,” and Clarry sets off to find him. This is a story both broad and deep, sketching the scope of the Western Front (shaped like a “ravenous, expectant smile. A greedy, unreasonable smile, considering how very, very well it was fed”) but drawing us closely into Clarry’s heart and mind as she emerges valiantly into adulthood. McKay’s genius as a writer is everywhere apparent: she conveys complex nuances of character with a light hand, moving gracefully from the hilarious to the heart-breaking; she paints scenes with spare, lucid detail (for example, a blackbird turns over dead leaves “like someone flicking through a book to find the illustrations”). Buoyant with the warmth of family love and friendship, and especially with McKay’s witty, incisive style, this exceptional novel invites — and amply rewards — re-reading.

From the November/December 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.